This week’s roundup also features baseball behemoth Aaron Judge, an inspired catch from a cricket fan and a furious bodybuilder1) With the Open starting, Rory McIlroy isn’t exactly firing on all cylinders. Let’s look back at some happier times, starting in 2007 when he burst on to the scene with a fine performance as an amateur at that year’s Open. Here he is winning the Silver Medal at Carnoustie. McIlroy had to wait a few years for his first major but managed it at the 2011 US Open. Here is the fresh-faced champion being interviewed on the 18th after breaking his duck. The following year he won the US PGA Championship, and did so again in 2014. In the same...
Norwegian retains his world title after thrilling tiebreak and wows a global audience looking forward to more of the sameJust after Magnus Carlsen had defeated Sergey Karjakin to retain his world chess championship, at 1am UK time on Thursday morning, I looked at the Guardian home page and was astonished and delighted to see that the liveblog on the world championship was the third-most read item on its website. For a moment chess – ignored, marginalised, even derided by some – finally had its place in the sun.The four rapidplay tie-breakers which decided the match, after 12 classical games had finished all-square, were one of those rare moments when all the stars aligned, creating a truly memorable event. It was...
The world championship between Magnus Carlsen and Sergey Karjakin has attracted large viewing figures and illustrated the appeal of slower sportsSometimes sport is at its most tense when it is at its most still – in those micro‑lulls before world title fights as the protagonists coil in their corners, awaiting the bell, and adrenaline and testosterone races through the crowd like white water; between the purse of a referee’s lips and the first step in a shootout; before the starter’s pistol shatters the hush of an Olympic 100m final; and, yes, when the world chess champion is hunched over the board, brain scurrying back and forth through innumerable tunnels of calculation looking for a clear path to victory.I can say...